I adopted a stray dog with two mouths, one where the ear should be
Toad is about 6 years old and arrived at the shelter I worked at several years ago. The entire staff was in shock at her appearance. She was also very aggressive when she came in. A shelter officer put a muzzle on her and took her to the vet clinic, and while she was there being examined—it sounds ridiculous, but literally—we made eye contact, and she immediately relaxed.
That day I brought her to my office for an evaluation, and she immediately jumped into my lap. This big, scary, crazy-looking dog just jumped into my lap and rested her head on my shoulder. I adopted her, and we’ve been inseparable ever since.
She’s the reason we started Mutt Misfits, our rescue organization dedicated to helping special needs, sick, injured, and deformed pets at risk of euthanasia. We were founded by shelter employees in May 2017 after seeing what happens to the “misfit” dogs they bring in, and we’ve saved nearly 200 dogs.
Yes. Those are two ears on Toad’s left side. Lift one ear and BAM! There’s an extra mouth. Equipped with teeth and salivary glands. Most people would find it disgusting, but the group of misfits loves it even more for it.
The second mouth has no jaw, so it can’t chew, but it does produce saliva and is connected to the first. The second mouth drools after eating with the first. The vet cleans and brushes the extra mouth, which has three teeth, from time to time.
We’ve heard many theories from veterinarians about her deformity, but most believe it’s a twin she absorbed in utero (don’t overbreed dogs, this can happen). She’s healthy and happy and has a good quality of life, although she won’t live as long as a healthy dog.
We took more X-rays of Toad’s skull. Now that we’ve had her for a long time and know more about her problems than when we first met her, we can understand the X-rays a little better.
The first image shows how irregular her skull is. She has an extra orbital bone around her eye socket, likely from the skull of the twin she absorbed in the womb, making her skull more bulbous.
The red circle shows two pairs of hyoid bones. The yellow circle shows how the vertebrae are not fused as they should be. The green circle shows their additional trachea, which is not fully formed.
She is a sweet and absolutely perfect girl who is extremely well-loved.
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If you’d like to save the impossible through a donation or adoption, check out our website.